We can spend up to a third of our time at work. It is fair to say work is a highly significant part of our lives. How do we find a job that suits us? How do we carry out our work in a productive way? How do we keep ourselves motivated and engaged at work? How can we effectively design work for other people?
If you have been thinking about at least some of these questions, then this course is for you. In this course, you will learn how to use psychology to understand and improve the work life of yourself and those around you. We will be looking at key topic areas in work psychology that affect people's performance and well-being at work, including: individual differences in personality and cognitive ability; motivation at work; teamwork; leadership; work design and occupational health and safety. Collectively, these topics give you a broad understanding about work psychology both from an individual perspective and from a group-based and organisational perspective.
Each week, you will meet one or two world-leading professors in the field of work psychology. The professors will take you through the journey by introducing current theories and research evidence in respective topic areas. You will have lots of opportunities to engage in self-reflections and group discussions; you will also be given several self-assessments that help you understand your own psychological attributes and work characteristics.
An important note so that you are aware of the level of this course. This course is designed for anyone who has interest in Work / Organisational Psychology yet who has NOT completed formal training in Psychology. This is a foundational course that will introduce you to a number of key topics in Work Psychology so that you will understand this area of research and practice, and how you can apply some of the theories and findings into your own work life. This course is NOT designed for people who already have completed substantial formal studies or training in Work Psychology-related areas, such as leadership training. If you have done so, you will likely find this course less suitable for your level, and you might want to consider a more advanced Work Psychology course.
Welcome to Psychology at Work and we wish you all the best in this learning journey!

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Module 4: Leadership

When we work together in teams, we often need leaders. In this week, we discuss the concept of leadership, and two important yet distinct aspects of leadership: who tends to emerge as leaders, and what types of leaders are effective? In addition, given the importance of leadership in organisational change, we discuss the strategies that leaders can adopt to enact effective changes.